I walk just about everywhere I go on campus, even in winter. It might have something to do with me not wanting to share the Huskie Bus with 300 other people. I’m not really sure.

Luckily for all of us walkers, Parking Services has issued a time sheet with the duration of time required to travel between specific starting points and destinations found on campus.

The list of starting points includes Lot K which is near Huskie Stadium, the parking garage on Normal Road and various other social hot-beds, while others on the list of destinations includes sites such as DuSable, Barsema and the Campus Recreation Center.

Since I have to leave my residence hall a half-hour early to get to class on time, I felt it was my civic duty to put the Parking Service time sheet to the test. So last week, I hit the pavement in search of answers.

What I found is while Parking Services’ estimations are all correct (it really does take six minutes to walk from the Campus Life Building to the parking garage), I couldn’t help but notice many of these estimations are ignoring the extenuating circumstances often occurring on campus.

For instance, Parking Services claims you can walk from the Normal parking garage to the Rec in 10 minutes. But while walking to the Rec center, I noticed a sandwich shop employee standing outside on their smoke break.

I know we’ve all at one time or another seen a sandwich shop employee out on their smoke break and thought, “Hey, a meatball sandwich sounds really good. Perhaps that employee who is smoking right now can make it for me,” but by the time you’ve finished eating, 20 minutes have gone by and you’re probably not going to the Rec. You won’t find this anywhere on the time sheet though, and that disappoints me.

Another discrepancy I have with the time sheet is the suggested 24 minutes it’s supposed to take to walk from Lot K to Barsema Hall. Try attempting that journey on a Monday afternoon and you will probably be run over by the “skilled” drivers on campus. (When did they abolish the driving test?) To be safe, I would suggest a half-hour to make the Lot K-to-Barsema trip.

So remember, instead of sharing the Huskie Bus with your graduating class, consider taking the path of lesser resistance and walk. Just be sure to give yourself enough time so that you can get to where you’re going without ending up underneath someone’s Geo Prism.